A Sydney furniture firm has collapsed into administration, locked out of its site and unable to deliver $500,000 in orders.
Customers of Inventis furniture brands may be left in limbo after five companies, including Bassett Furniture, Gregory Commercial Furniture, and Workstations went into voluntary administration in late June.
The ASX-listed group owes nearly $30 million, according to ASIC documents.
The furniture companies operated out of Inventis’ premises in Ardnell Park, Western Sydney.
However, in mid-June, the landlord locked the companies out of the property due to unpaid rent.
Administrators Simon Cathro and Andrew Blundell from Cathro and Partners wrote in a report the landlord issued a termination requiring the site be vacated by June 30.
The companies trading was stopped as soon as the administrators were appointed to avoid racking up even more debt.
The administrators found an order book which showed a whopping $500,000 worth of stock was owed to customers.
It also showed the company was too far gone in being able to deliver the goods as the lead time to produce the items was well into the future.
The Inventis Group is estimated to owe $2.6 million to the n Tax Office, with the ATO issuing a directors penalty notice in June.
The notice, addressed to the company’s managing director Anthony Mankarios, was for $1.4million in unpaid PAYG withholding tax dating back to August 2020.
About $1.6million is also owed to the company’s staff, with the amount excluding the outstanding severance pay for the terminated employees.
Inventis HR Services, one of the companies which was plunged into administration, has the highest outstanding estimated debts.
The company, which employed the staff working throughout the group, has $18.5 million outstanding to creditors.
According to the 2024 financial year report, the group employed 55 people – all of which worked at the five different companies under current administration.
An estimated $14.1million of the total debts related to other groups within the company such as Inventis Technology division.
About $4.4million in debts to creditors was owed by Inventis Properties, $5.6million owed by Gregory Commercial Furniture, $715,752 owed by Workstations, while Bassett Furniture owed $490,650 in total debts.
The administrators explained the company had tried to restructure and cut costs after noticing sales had dropped but the measures failed to resolve the company’s issues.
In the past two years, sales across Bassett, Gregory and Workstations had more than halved plunging from 10.1million in 2023 to just $4million in 2025.
Manufacturing at the Ardnell Park site was halted in May after a storm caused leaking and conditions unsafe for work, which delayed delivery of orders worth $200,000.
The group also incurred $321,000 in termination costs in March, this year, after cutting down their staff.
In the report, the administrators said the group’s companies were potentially trading while insolvent – the state of being unable to pay debts when they are due – since June 2024.
The administrators have urged creditors to vote to liquidate the companies at a meeting on Friday.
If the company is put under liquidation, creditors will probably not receive any of the debts owed to them.
Company directors had told the administrator they were seeking asset realisations -the process of converting assets into cash or cash equivalents – within the Inventis group.
The asset realisation could potentially include a co-investment, which if successful would result in creditors and staff being paid.
The administrators report explained the businesses and assets were also up for sale.
Three offers to purchase the companies have since been submitted, with one offer under negotiations.
The sale, however, is only for the business and its assets and would not include employee transfer, the report said.